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Kaveh felt his body aching, laying flat against whatever surface he was on. His fingers twitched and he momentarily caught the fabric below, a high thread count satin that struck him as familiar running smooth under his fingertips. “Ugh…” he groaned.
Suddenly, there was a slight movement beyond his close perception, and Kaveh became frightened by its enormity. The creak of his world as whatever was out beyond his closed eyes moved was making his stomach churn in a way that he didn’t like in the slightest.
What was I doing before this? he asked himself. Where did I go and what happened to me?
The excavation site in the desert came to his mind, a remnant of the ancient civilization King Deshret had left behind. He’d stumbled through a trapdoor that sent him hurtling down a chute and into a closed chamber, and a strange humming made his ears ring. The strange patterns on the walls of the chamber that surrounded him had flashed a bright blue before his world had gone dark, a hue so bright the letters were nearly etched into his retinas.
Did I escape? he wondered. I don’t recall any soft surfaces in there. But if there’s satin below me, then who…
He felt his teeth against his lower lip as he bit down slightly. He’d sworn he’d gone alone. Maybe Cyno had tracked him down in case he’d suffered heatstroke, or maybe Tighnari was nursing him back to health.
Or maybe… no…
Another movement beyond his quiet place of contemplation, this time accompanied by a breathy but unmistakable huff that caused Kaveh’s chest to ache in dread.
God, anyone but you…
He slowly opened his eyes, hoping he’d at least been put in his own bed. It was the least that Alhaitham could do for him. He thought it was already strange that he was watching him sleep, but he was almost certain that was already a pastime for the man. “Haitham… ow, my… head?” he groaned as he cracked open his eyes.
As his vision cleared from sleep, he looked around and sharply breathed in. The floor was stories away from him, and the table, though closer, was still far out of reach. He looked at the ‘ground’ he’d been on and discovered that his assessment of satin was right, though he immediately recognized it as one of the pillows on the long lounge chair in Alhaitham’s house.
Alhaitham. He sat nearby, reading a book with one hand and writing something on a piece of paper with the other. His gaze didn’t break from what he was doing except for a brief flash towards the blonde to acknowledge his presence. But that didn’t bother Kaveh as much as seeing that his roommate was huge, perhaps as tall as the Akademiya’s entranceway compared to the tavern that lay below it.
H-how’d he get so tall? He’s the size of one of my palace projects, he thought. He looked around the area, noting that the vast expanse of a room was near identical to his normal living arrangement save for the scale.
No, wait… how did I get so small?!
Alhaitham sighed and closed the book before setting it aside and looking down at him. “You know, it’s usually common courtesy to greet someone upon first sight following waking up,” he said.
Kaveh stammered. “W-what happened? What did you…”
“I didn’t do anything, this is the result of your own carelessness,” he said. “That chamber was a test device they’d used to practice compression of objects. Well, I suppose it works on people too. Congratulations, you’ve secured yet another discovery for Kshahrewar.”
“Compressed?!” As he began to stand up, he felt his shoes slip against the satin of the pillow. “Gah!”
Alhaitham sighed and began to reach his arm out. “Yes, compressed. Don’t tell me that the ancient technology at the dig site affected your mental faculties.”
Kaveh’s gut twisted as the shape of a hand began swiftly moving towards his fragile frame. “H-hey, wait, I—“
“Don’t struggle, I don’t want to explain an accident to Tighnari,” Alhaitham warned. His hand refused to stop as the heat of his palm inched closer.
Kaveh turned and tried to run. His foot quickly caught against the slick fabric under him and he crashed onto his stomach. For the few fragile moments he was laying there, his heart began to race and his breath grew heavy. “AlhaiTHAAAAMM!”
His voice crescendoed as the scholar gripped the back of his shirt and Kaveh began to wildly flail as the ground shrunk away from him. His roommate’s face grew closer too, a look of quiet and pensive curiosity rising through his gaze at the struggling blonde.
Kaveh gripped his collar and pulled it down, trying to avoid his airways getting restricted as he was hoisted in front of Alhaitham’s piercing gaze. His reflection showed clearly in those eyes, and Kaveh realized just how interesting he’d become to the scholar, a thought that deeply made the man want to emotionally retreat.
That, or perhaps fawn instead of flee.
“Let go of me, Alhaitham— I’m not a bug you can just examine!” he yelled, trying to yank the fabric he was hanging by from his captor’s grasp. “This shirt is also really expens—- AGH!”
On cue, Kaveh felt the scholar drop him. For a split second he thought it right to get angry, even if he was doing what he asked; it wasn’t what he’d meant at all, and he was certain that the Scribe knew it. But as his tiny form met the open palm of Alhaitham’s other hand, such ideas evaporated, leaving him shaking from stress.
Alhaitham leaned back. “I can’t exactly examine you in many other ways,” he calmly replied.
“Then maybe don’t examine me at all? That could be an option,” Kaveh replied, pushing himself into a kneel and crossing his arms.
“No thanks, that wouldn’t be very insightful. I’d hate to let an opportunity for knowledge like this to pass,” the Scribe retorted. “Not many people have ever really held someone so small. In fact, I haven’t read any accounts. So for all intents and purposes, this is untrodden ground.”
“So I’m your little project now?” Kaveh asked, his eyes narrowing.
“Speaking strictly as a scholar, yes,” Alhaitham said. “As stated before, nobody has really ever experienced this, so I’d like to be sure to get as much detail as possible.”
“And what if I don’t want to be a part of something like that?” Kaveh asked as he raised his voice. “Don’t I get a say?”
“No,” Alhaitham replied with a sigh. “You don’t.”
“And why not?”
Alhaitham brought Kaveh over onto the table and set him down next to a strange object. It looked like a metal plate in the middle of a large green crystalline sphere. The edges of the plate were jagged, but the gold of the metal was pristine and reflected Kaveh’s face clearly. As Kaveh scrambled off of the hand and moved closer, the flicker of light within the orb made it clear what the architect was looking at.
“It’s… my Vision.” Kaveh turned to look at his roommate, who still loomed over him despite sitting back. “Why didn’t it shrink with me?”
“It snagged on the chute and disconnected,” Alhaitham said. “A miscalculation on your part that made it possible for us to locate you. Bravo.”
Kaveh scoffed. “There’s no need to mock me, you know. At this point it’s literally punching down,” he said, carefully grabbing the edges of his vision and picking it up. “Ugh… so heavy…”
“Do you need help?” Alhaitham plainly asked.
“No, I’m fine, I can handle it on my own. I don’t need you helping me,” he said despite his own Vision weighing like a massive sandbag in his arms.
Alhaitham raised an eyebrow. “Your face is turning red from the strain, it would be in your best interest to reconsider.”
“What, that I need your help?” Kaveh asked. “Judging by your motives it doesn’t come without strings attached.”
“While your caution is understandable, there’s no reason to act like I’m wringing you dry,” Alhaitham replied. “I have no interest in causing you harm, especially because I’d have little reason to.” He reached over and grabbed the Vision from the tiny blonde’s hands.
“H-hey, don’t just…” As the Vision left his arms, he was hit with a sudden wave of dizziness, a state so intense that he fell over and felt his vision blackening. “N-no, wait…”
After a few moments, his eyes snapped back open and he forced himself upright onto the table. “H-huh, what…”
Alhaitham, still patiently watching, raised an eyebrow. “You passed out for about a minute. You’re likely fatigued.” He took the Vision and fastened it against his chest. “You’re weakened significantly by your size. Either that or you’ve allocated your claymore job to your briefcase and never recovered.”
Kaveh clenched his teeth. “You come down here to eye level and say that again,” he growled.
“No need to strain my neck,” Alhaitham sighed. “Anyway, Tighnari and the emissary who found you should be back in the morning to check on your condition.”
“Emissary?” Kaveh asked. “I went by myself.”
“A foolish choice on your part, one I wasn’t going to allow you to make out of the risk that you’d die. Where would Kshahrewar be without their Light then?” Alhaitham said.
Kaveh groaned. He’d had just about enough of the backhanded concern. “You’re just worried because my rent is a normal part of income.”
“That’s just an obvious benefit of our arrangement,” he said. He tilted his head. “I need to look at you again.”
Kaveh stepped back as Alhaitham brought his hands up, prepared to run, but stopped as he instead placed his arms on the table like walls that surrounded him. Protected him. The architect’s face turned red as his roommate’s face grew closer.
“Are you experiencing any difference in the way time moves?” he asked plainly. “Any slowing of my words or movements, I mean.”
“I know what you mean,” Kaveh replied, crossing his arms and doing his best to avoid direct eye contact. “No, not really.”
“So this is something beyond the realm of basic physics…” One of his arms retreated to grab a pencil and write further notes. “And how is your appetite?”
“I feel fine, just a little dizzy by all the movement,” Kaveh said. “Are you writing notes on me?”
“They’re for the emissary, he says he’s going to look further into the technology,” the Scribe replied. “I take it that your commissioner didn’t show up when you got there?” he asked.
“No, and as soon as I thought I’d found him I was dropped into that chamber,” Kaveh replied. He’d been celebrating in his mind that Alhaitham was writing something about him, that he was intently listening, but still something was…off.
“What we are currently trying to figure out is if your sudden shrinking is related to the increasing number of missing persons,” Alhaitham said. “If so, the worst has already occurred.”
Kaveh’s stomach churned— he’d remembered that his commission had asked him to study the murals of the ruin he’d been shrunk within. “Do you think that my commissioner might be behind them?”
“Perhaps,” Alhaitham replied. “I’m not one for hunches, but the General Mahamatra said that his senses were going off about that particular lead.” He dropped his chin against the table and huffed.
Kaveh watched as the scholar’s eyes wandered away and he tilted his head in curiosity. “…You missed me, didn’t you?”
Alhaitham hummed. “When Cyno came to me bearing the news, I thought you weren’t going to be coming back.”
Kaveh chuckled. “I’d sooner shrivel in the sun than forget to come home,” he admitted. Carefully, he walked up to the scholar and pressed a hand against his warm cheek.
Alhaitham’s eyes closed. “You don’t mean that, not with how much you complain,” he said, leaning ever slightly into Kaveh’s tiny touch.
Kaveh sighed. He was hurt that Alhaitham thought so low as to assume he didn’t care, but there was always a reason behind his words, even if it was more emotional than he’d care to admit. “Long work day?”
“Too many meetings,” Alhaitham said. “Some were emergencies. One was an audience with Lesser Lord Kusanali,” he said.
“That’s big. Well, perhaps for me, not so much with you. What did you talk with her about?”
Alhaitham opened his eyes and poked Kaveh in the side with a quick hum. “You.”
Kaveh shook his head. “You say all the time you don’t worry, but when you’re tired, your colors are more prominent.”
The scholar sat up and propped his head against his palm as his elbow touched the table. The action was sudden enough for Kaveh to stumble back a bit. “What now?” the blonde asked.
“I think we should go to bed,” Alhaitham said, standing up and shuffling past the table.
“You mean you? I don’t feel tired,” Kaveh said.
Alhaitham groaned and reached forward. “No,” he said. “We.”
Kaveh braced himself for another grab, hunching his shoulders and tensing up.
“Kaveh…” Alhaitham said, his tone softer and more clearly tired. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
Kaveh looked up at him, seeing how he loomed over him, and swallowed his spit. A red blush crept over his face as he spotted the glisten of the man’s eyes, the pensive look of what he’d learned in their early friendship was called “wonder”, and he lowered his shoulders. “Please be careful.”
Alhaitham reached behind him and scooped him into his palm before bringing him close. “You’re more interesting at this size,” he muttered gently.
Kaveh looked to the distant floor as his face grew more red. “What the heck does that even mean?”
“It means what it means,” Alhaitham sighed. “You can read between the lines if need be.”
Kaveh shook his head. “I’m… sorry for scaring you,” he said. “Had I known Cyno would deliver me back to you like this, I wouldn’t have been so reckless.”
Alhaitham hummed before running a finger through Kaveh’s hair. His gait as he walked to his bed was gentle, careful even— it was clear that he wasn’t comfortable doing this but wanted to make something clear. Communication, despite the Scribe being a graduate of Haravatat, was somehow his weakness when it came to these sorts of late nights.
But Kaveh knew this demeanor well, and he knew it was a prelude to more soft and intimate moments of quiet. “Why’d you stay up so late?”
Alhaitham huffed and kept walking.
“Hey, answer me!” Kaveh knew the answer but wanted to hear it from the taller man.
Alhaitham took his other hand and cupped it over the blonde, momentarily blocking out the light in the room. “You’re noisy,” he said.
“Alhaitham!” Kaveh replied, pressing his hands against the upper palm of Alhaitham’s hand. He braced his legs and tried to force his hand up by unbending his knees, but the warm center of the Scribe’s hand dared not budge. “It’s dark!”
From beyond, he heard the scholar blowing out candles, dimming lights, shuffling about. His hands opened for a brief moment before Kaveh’s world tilted around and he dropped through the crevice between the hands with a small yelp.
Alhaitham walked away for a moment, and as Kaveh dusted himself off from the fall he looked around at the wide expanse of his bed. His feet sank into the pillow beneath him. “Haitham?” he called. “You’re acting weird.”
“I forgot my reading material,” the Scribe replied.
Kaveh rolled his eyes. “You can’t even read with how dark it is,” he said. “You’ll hurt your eyes.”
“I’ve done it before, so I’ll be alright,” Alhaitham replied, returning with a strange blue book. It looked like the same one he’d been reading earlier, but the edges were gilded and the volume was bound in thick vellum.
“What is that?” Kaveh asked. “Don’t tell me you’re still on that kick about eschatological stories from across Teyvat,” he said.
“I had to take a diversion from that,” Alhaitham replied as he sat down on the bed. Kaveh felt the motions as the scholar pulled open the blanket and pulled off his capelet. “End-times prophecies and predictions can wait another day.”
Kaveh tapped his foot. “That didn’t answer my question at all,” he said.
Alhaitham plucked him by the waist and shuffled into bed after removing his shoes and his headphones. “If I answer your question, will you stop complaining?”
Kaveh kicked and flailed as he hung in the air. “Put me down first!”
Alhaitham scooted so his back was against his headboard before setting him down on his shoulder. “Look at the pages,” he said.
Kaveh squinted at the text as he steadied himself against the scholar’s neck. “It’s an ancient Eremite script,” he said, leaning forward. “I’ve seen these sorts of glyphs countless times. Aren’t these elemental runes?”
Alhaitham nodded. “They mark the function and purpose of whatever was done to you. The emissary I mentioned got it directly from the Temple of Silence.”
Kaveh’s brow furrowed. “Isn’t that information on a strict lockdown?”
“Generally speaking, yes,” Alhaitham replied with a yawn. “But the emissary— Sethos, if I recall— had granted me access for the purpose of ensuring I knew the extent of the problem.”
“You just have to change me back, right?” Kaveh said. “I see that marking there, it means “change”. We should just be able to ‘unchange’ it, right?”
Alhaitham shook his head and pointed to a glyph next to the one Kaveh had pointed out. “That one means ‘to make prone’.”
Kaveh looked at the runes again. “Hm, you’re right,” he said. “This differs the elemental markings entirely.”
Alhaitham nodded. “If read in its entirety, these runes imply that the catalyst for your shrinking was intentionally made to not be the machine itself, but rather a variable that can go with you. It would prove useful when shipping supplies if a conversion from large or small…” He stopped to yawn. “Or vice versa was exposed to something to initiate its more transportable state, such as water or sand.”
Kaveh swallowed. “So there’s something I’m doing that’s keeping me like this?”
“Yes, but no,” Alhaitham said. “You're not consciously doing something. I have a working hypothesis but I should wait until Tighnari sees you tomorrow to confirm it.”
Kaveh crossed his arms. “You know how I feel about guessing games. Just tell me directly—“
“Cortisol buildup.”
Kaveh blinked. “I… what?” he asked.
“Cortisol is a natural hormone that is produced under times of severe stress, including lack of proper sleep, depression, and general fatigue,” Alhaitham said.
Kaveh shuddered, trying to be sure he understood clearly. “So the machine used excess cortisol as the trigger for this?”
Alhaitham slowly breathed in. “Yes,” he said.
“That’s fine, I just have to sleep it off and I should return to normal, right?” Kaveh said. “Problem solved.”
Alhaitham’s lip twitched, a motion that was a clear attempt to hold back a nervous smirk by the way his eyes crinkled and broke their gaze from the tiny architect. “If only it were that simple…”
Kaveh was worried when he’d been moved that the general motions he’d endured were catching up to his stomach, but as Alhaitham muttered those words, his gut twisted again out of a more primal fear. The scholar didn’t talk like this unless he was certain. “What do you mean by that?”
“The elemental markings said it would ‘make you prone’ to this,” Alhaitham said. “If this text is correct— and I have little reason to assume the worst of Sethos by implying any tampering—then this condition could activate anytime your cortisol levels spike too high. In layman’s terms, a curse has been laid upon you.”
Kaveh shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t even get a break by resting?! What am I supposed to do? I have work that needs to be done!”
Alhaitham sighed. “Looks like you’ll have to pace yourself for once. Honestly, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to find a new routine.”
“My clients, they’ll…” Kaveh stared down into his hands. “I can’t just quit on them like this!”
“Of course you can’t. You’re Kaveh, you never leave something half-done,” Alhaitham dryly replied.
“What are you trying to say?!” the blonde asked, attempting to stand on the Scribe’s shoulder. As he stamped one of his feet down, it missed and sent Kaveh careening down the slope of Alhaitham’s chest. He tried desperately to cling to anything he could, but the sleek fabric was a difficult thing to grip.
Luckily, Alhaitham broke his fall with one of his hands before parting his lips to speak. “What I’m saying is that you need to quit for the day before your body chooses on your behalf. What would happen if you get so tired that you shrink around a gang of Treasure Hoarders?”
Kaveh propped himself up and coughed from the impact. “ I….”
Unfortunately, the scholar was making too much sense. Kaveh had very little wiggle room to work around his newfound condition, but the idea of disappointing his clients made him more sick than simply knowing he was cursed. “How do we remove the curse?” he asked.
“That’s what we’re working on next,” Alhaitham said. “Sethos and Cyno are following leads, Tighnari is going to come and assess you.”
“And you?” Kaveh asked, carefully bracing as the scholar scooped him up again.
Alhaitham yawned and closed the book, placing it on the nightstand. “I have the misfortune of keeping you out of trouble.” He shimmied down from sitting and placed his hand against the pillow, covering Kaveh carefully with a grumpy hum.
Kaveh wiggled free from underneath. “You’re going to sleep in your clothes?”
“The fibers are comfortable enough and I have places to be tomorrow anyway,” Alhaitham replied. “Changing in and out of clothes is a waste of time.”
“You’ll also sweat too much and dirty your sheets. You know I won’t be able to help you with those,” Kaveh said.
“Then I’ll just deal with that when it happens,” Alhaitham said, facing away.
“…Haitham.”
“Mh.”
“Alhaitham, look at me,” Kaveh said. “Are you upset because you wanted something tonight? Something my size doesn’t let me do?”
Alhaitham turned over. “I just had plans for some deep pressure that are going to have to wait. No need to concern yourself.”
Kaveh huffed. “Don’t dodge the question— you’re looking for cuddles.”
Alhaitham sighed and grabbed Kaveh around the waist with his fingers. “You’re the one who brought the idea up.”
“H-hey, careful!” Kaveh said, shimmying to try and give his hips a little relief from the tight grip. “Ugh, I only brought it up because you’re moping. It’s clear to me why.”
Alhaitham brought him to his face and sighed. “You’re even noisier like this, maybe interesting wasn’t the right word.” He let go of the architect and cupped his hands around him, holding him less than half a foot from his face.
Kaveh noticed the same glisten to Alhaitham’s eyes and he softened in response. “I know I’m cute like this, too,” he said. “Still, I can at least try to cudd—mph!”
Alhaitham quickly planted a kiss against Kaveh, a motion so swift it felt unreal for a moment to the latter. His soft lips gently cushioned the blonde’s chest and pressed him against his palms. His breath, sweet with wine, washed over him and sent his senses into a tingly spiral. Kaveh’s face flushed red and he tried hard not to laugh from the shock.
“I’m… glad you’re home,” the scholar sleepily said, pulling him closer to him. He slid all the way up to his face, close enough that his eyes had to cross to see Kshahrewar’s Light.
Kaveh let out a small chuckle and nestled against his cheek. He could see Alhaitham’s eyes fluttering and struggling to stay open, clearly waiting for him to say it back. No matter how much he wanted to solve the problem now, he’d just have to wait and savor this moment of peace instead.
He ran his hand down Alhaitham’s nose and watched him fall asleep, saying words he knew that the Moon alone would witness.
“I love you too.”